Based in Fresno, California, Darren Hurst is an artist who works in a variety of traditional media. While his portfolio contains a range of styles and subject matter, the artist seems to have a particular fondness for pop-culture, particularly comic book figures.

Darren utilizes a skillful, realistic style in many of his works, rendering original forms and recognizable figures with equal finesse. I like the artist’s gallery of acrylic paintings, where he showcases his eye for conceptual figurative painting. Many of the works in this gallery have a surrealist, symbolic appearance, portraying human and abstract forms in bizarre landscapes and situations, or contorted into abstract shapes.

In his Fan Art gallery, Darren showcases his ability to draw well-known and beloved characters from comic books and movies. While in some cases, the drawing is an homage to a specific scene of poster, in many cases Darren takes the character and creates an entirely new composition. Each work functions as an idealized movie poster or comic book cover.

About the author

Dallas Jeffs is the Editor of Artist Run Website's blog. She is a recent graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she studied Critical and Cultural Practices. She is passionate about talking and writing about art, and sharing that interest with others. In her studio practice she is a painter, but she considers herself an art writer and educator foremost. If you like art, books and culture with a science fiction twist, check out Dallas' personal blog, HappySpaceNoises